Social Impact Theory Flashcards
What is the key concept of social impact theory?
People’s behaviour is influenced by social forces
What is strength?
How much power you believe the person influencing you has
E.g. if the person has a high rank in an organisation, if they have legitimate authority, their orders will have more strength
What is immediacy?
How recent the order was given and how close the authority figure is when giving it
E.g. an order you received a minute ago from your boss standing right next to you will have more impact than an email you received from your boss last week
What is number?
The more people putting pressure on you to do something, the more social force/impact they will have
What is the psychosocial law?
Each new person increases the impact but each additional person has less impact than the person before them (but still adds to overall impact)
What is the multiplicative effect?
Impact of S, I and N multiplied together is greater than each individual element
What is the divisional effect?
The more targets there are to impact, the harder it is for the source as their strength is divided by the number of targets
How does Milgram’s variation 7 support social impact theory?
Found when experimenter gave instructions over the phone, obedience levels decreased so its a credible explanation for obedience
How does Milgram, Berkowitz and Brown support social impact theory (psychosocial law)?
The more confederates looking up at a high floor, the more people passing by stopped to do the same but each new person had less impact than the one before
Why is social impact theory less reductionist than agency theory?
Takes into account more situational factors and has a focus on the source and target so its a credible explanation
Why is social impact theory useful?
Allows us to better understand atrocities like Mai Li where soldiers were given orders over the radio did not follow orders as much as those face to face
Why might social impact theory not be a complete explanation for obedience?
Ignores individual differences e.g. authoritarian personality
Why does Mullen conflict social impact theory?
Found strength and immediacy’s effect were not consistent so not a credible explanation
Why is social impact theory reductionist?
Simplifies a complicated human behaviour down to explain all situations
